Decoration of fabric in multicolor relief



M t h 1947- 7 F. c. HEWITT' DECORATION OF FABRIC IN MUL'I'ICOLOR RELIEF 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed lay 25, 1944 CL. cm 3 March 4, 1947.

F. c. HEWITT 2,416,997 DECORATION OF FABRIE IN MULTICOLOR RELIEF I Filed m 25, 1944 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR /'7=?A IVAC. HEW/Tr ATTORNEYS Patented Mare 4, l4?

or FABRIC IN MuL'rIooLon RELIEF nnoona'rron Frank C; Hewitt, Northampton, Mass, asslgnor,

by mesne assignments, to The Aspinook Corporation, Jewett City, Conn.,

Delaware a corporation of Application May 25, 1944, Serial No. 537,215

t Claims. 1

Thisinv'ention relates to decorated fabrics and to processes for making them. In particular it relates to a fabric, and to a process of producing it, in which a wholly novel effect of multicolor relief is produced having special value in floral designs ans the like. Thus by causing the petals or leaves in a floral design to be distorted out of the plane of the fabric and at the same time coloring them in contrast to neighboring areas a strikingly realistic eflect is produced wholly at variance with that of conventional printed fabrics.

' tendency anddoes not constitute any .well marked The invention is based upon the printing of a water insoluble cellulose resist, such as precipi-, I

tated oxycellulose or cellulose ether, in combinationwith a suitable dye in the areas to be given a relief, printing neighboring parts of the pattern in one or more contrasting colors, and shrinking all parts of the fabric except those which were printed with the resist. The shrinking causes the resist-printed areas to be bowed out of the plane of the fabric, the cellulose resist giving the fabric sufiicient body so that it .will bow rather than pucker as in the usual creping operation provided the precautions noted beloware observed. The relief thus given is enhanced by n-inting regions adjacent to the bowed areas in a contrasting'color, the maximum effect being produced when the resist-printed areas are dark in color and are associated with lighter neighboring zones.

The effect on the resist-printed areas of shrinking the surrounding areas will vary. with the size and shape of the former, and it is one of the features of the invention that this effect may be controlled as desired by the designing artist.

If the areahas a width much less than its length,

as occurs in exaggerated form in a stripe, the

condensation of the surrounding fabric will cause the narrow resist-printed area to be puckered in a quite regular ladder-like manner, extending outwardly in alternating directions from the plane of the fabric. If the resist-printed areas are circular and of moderate size, say under /2 inch diameter, the surrounding condensation will cause the areas to cup rather uniformly, each area extending outwardly on one side only of the 2 r of too great a size','-take on the type of buckling to be expected of a flat'plate subjected to pressure on all sides. ,Thus a square will under uniform conditions of handling tend to center its buckling along the diagonals, although this is a line formation, "the stiffness of the coated areas and the inevitable variations in tension in different directions during cbmmerclal cloth handling preventing absolute regularity.

These differing characteristics are of .great value to the designing artist, and make the proc= ess in efiect a new medium for artistic expression. Thus a small circular area like the center of a flower can be cupped, and an emphasis added by relief to the contrasting color given to this area. If an area, which may be of the same size, is to represent a naturally irregularly curled object like a leaf or a petal, a very realistic appearance can be given to it by making the resist-printed area of less width than length, or by making it somewhat irregular in shape. In the description and claims the term leaf or leaves" will be used for convenience in its broadest botanical sense as including both floral and foliage leaves.

fabric and under uniform conditions all on the same side; If the circular areas are ofjmuch greater size they cannot sustain; the surrounding condensing force evenly, and while there is probably a tendency toform a uniform cup this result is easily broken up and a rather unpleasant heterogeneous roughness occurs. A resist-printed, area of someother regular form will, if not If a different effect is desired in the curling than in the color, the cellulose resist may be printed on separately from the color. A long narrow area of resist-treated fabric may be acceptable in a chain or rope design while iving a distinctly unreal and unpleasant appearance to the stem of a flower. cations may be used in a single design, either eometrical or floral.

While no true idea of the result produced can be given by a black and white ink drawing, such a representation may be of assistance in describing the process. In the accompanying figures,

Fig. 1 is a diagram showing the treatment 0! a conventionalized flower design;

Fig. 2 is a diagram showing the method of treating a, more-naturalistic flower design; and

Fig, 3 is a diagram showing the treatment of a still more naturalistic design in which more attention is paid to smaller details.

In Fig. 1 the petal area I are printed all over with a red dye contained in a resist of oxycellulose dissolved in sodium zincate solution, or of an alkali soluble cellulose ether, leaving the central areas 2 and the surrounding leaves 3 andfiowers' Various combinations and modiflment, the petals being printed in yellow with no resist, while the central area 6 is printed in red carried by the cellulose resist. The ground design than those in Fig. 1 and are printed in I two colors, a white area '10 printed with the cellulose resist and a colored area II. The stem I2 is printed in green. The puckering of areas} when the entire fabric is subjected to a. mercerizing treatment without tension gives to thepetals a very realistic appearance of relief.

A design in which the effect of artistic relief is still more enhanced is shown in Fig. 3. The

general result is here very striking, even though the operation can be carried on entirely by machine operation. The green leaves I5, together with the veins IS in a contrasting color are printed with a cellulose resist. If desired, certain parts I! may be printed in a different tint of green, or with a different amount of the resist and dye by varying the engraving of the printing roll. The areas is are preferably made lighter and without the cellulose resist. It will be noted that the resist printed area is longer than its width, although not in exaggerated form like a stem or stripe. By keeping the ratio of length to width above 1:1 (a circle) and below about 2:1 an effect is produced on shrinking wholly different from the cupping of a circular area or the laddering of a stripe, and which imparts an extremely natural appearance to the leaf. In general a proportion of 1.5:1 will be found very satisfactory for the resist printed areas, it being of course possible to print the resist in areas of this proportion even though the colored area in which it lies is nearly circular or irregular,

The flowers may be treated as before, but by using smaller areas than in previous examples, by proportioning the ratio of length to width to give the effect desired, and by locating the puckered areas adjacent areas of a contrasting and preferably lighter color the appearance of relief can be enhanced. Thus areas i9 treated with dye and the resist are located adjacent areas of a lighter shade. while areas 2| are located adjacent undyed areas 22. The proportion of most of the areas is under about 3:1 but some like 23 are made longer and take on a fairly regular laddering effect when the fabric is shrunk. As long as the length and number of these areas is not too great they may be used with good effect.

It may be noted that regularity of laddering in a curved narrow area like 24 will be less than were the same area straight. For certain floral effects, areas such as the central flower area. 25 may be made substantially circular and printed ,with the resist, so that a cupped effect will occur.

The general method of procedure will now be considered from the chemical and cloth finishing point of view leaving aside the artists selection of areas to be treated. The fabric is used with its natural white ground, or is first treated toprovide a'desired colored ground either by printing a blotch ground, omitting the areas to be later printed, or by dyeing with a dischargeable color which will be discharged by the printing pastes later used in producing the multi-color effect. It is preferred to use the former method as the colors which may be used in blotch printing of the ground are more permanent than are dischargeabl colors. The various colors are then printed preferably with engraved rolls and are carefullyfitted together so as not to overlap. It is generally desirable to print last the paste which includes the cellulose resist so that it will not have any tendency to become smeared on the other colors. In general the cellulose solution is used on the darker shades as the relief effect is somewhat enhanced in this manner and is pointed out above is usually placed in the portions of the design which are naturally curved such as leaves or petals. I

The colors except the cellulose resist are mixed in the usual way, preferably employing vat colors. A preferred form of making a color paste including the cellulose resist is to dissolve a reducing .agent such as sodium sulfoxylate in a solution of six to eight degrees sodium hydroxide, add this to a. solution of oxycellulose in sodium zincate or to an alkaline solution of a cellulose ether, and finally add this combined paste to the vat color gradually. This order of addition is less likely to produce irregularities than the reverse.

The printing may be done on the ordinary multi-color textile printing machine and the fabric is then dried, preferably at a low temperature. In order to reduce the vat dyes to their leuco ester stage-the printed fabric is subjected to aging in what is commonly referred to as a rapid ager in which the fabric is subjected to an atmosphere of steam. This causes the reducing agent to react with the alkali and the dye to produce leuco esters which will penetrate into the fibres in preparation for their final conversion to the insoluble state.

The entire fabric is then wet with caustic of mercerizing strength, conveniently by a padding operation, the caustic being allowed to act upon the fabric while the latter is free from tension. The padded fabric after this interval is soured with the addition of bichromate or other oxidizing agent, this process also being performed without tension. Excess acid is then washed from the fabric and in order to reduce the harshness which would otherwise occur in the places where the cellulose resist is located on the fabric a softener of a substantive type such as a sulfonated oil is preferably included in the wash water or in a subsequent bath. The fabric is then reduced to a moisture content of about and dried .on a contrasting ground in which elongated portions of the fabric included in the leaves, and of a length not more than twice their width, are printed with a permanent resist and are unshrunken and buckled to produce a simulation of reality in the leaves, the surrounding fabric being shrunken and flat.

2. .A fabric having a representation of leaves on a contrasting ground in which elongated portions of the fabric included in the leaves, less in area than the leaves and of a length not more 5 than twice their width, are printed with a. permanent resist and are unshrunken and buckled to produce a simulation of reality in the leaves, the surrounding fabric being shrunken and flat.

3. A fabric having a color pattern anda localized resist pattern, the two patterns being correlated in position to throw portions of the color pattern into relief but not being coextensive in area, the portion of the fabric within the boundaries of the resist pattern being buckled and the portion of the fabric outside the boundaries of the resist pattern being shrunken and fiat.

4. A fabric having a shrunken ground, a localized pattern characterized by being unshrunken and buckled, and a color pattern, said two pat- 15 terns being non-coextensive but correlated in position so that the buckled areas impart a three dimensional effect of reality to the color pattern.

FRANK C. HEWITT.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS 

